18th century vs. 1800s for everyone who might be confused

I've seen way too many folks mix up the 18th century for the 1800s, when they're actually different centuries. So, here's a quick run down for anyone who might be confused. ✌🏻

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📪 Abby Cox
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[aearon]

It‘s not just English, it‘s the same in German and many other languages as well I assume. This is not really a problem of language but rather one of mathematics.

[meriotheart]

It's because the years 0-99 are the 1st century, there is no 0th century. So you're basically 1 behind from the very start.

I hope that this adds an extra explanation/makes it easier for people to understand why (in case you didn't)

[danyf.]

Confirm that it's the same in Italian, I remember my history teacher including in our tests a timeline where we had to put correctly dates written in different systems, a.d., b.c and calculate how many years between this and that. It's not as easy as it sounds, can get a little confusing sometimes.

[UnicornsPoopRainbows]

I JUST summarized this today for my husband. The way I remember it is year 8 CE would be **within** the First century, same as if a baby were 8 months old, it is within the first year of life.

Or just memorize it 😅

[ericajemison-baltazar]

This has been a personal pet peeve of mine for years. And it seems to me that these kinds of errors are popping up more frequently—even in content produced by experts! I love the energy you bring to your videos. You make them fun, even when they are just explaining something as basic as this. 🙂

[Pysslis]

As a swede, I realized this was a thing when 20th century fox changed their name.

[TheEclecticCloset]

I just had to explain this to my husband and the look he gave me was a literal goldfish 😂

[e.malloy]

I did this mini-lecture to a group in my art class and it blew their minds and it made me worried about their art history grades. :O

[outcastedOpal]

It's helpful to clarify why this is. If you think about what years 0-99 is, that is th 1st century. We wouldn't call it the zeroth century. It is the first one.

EDIT: Apearently there is no year 0 and 1st century is 1-100, but the point stands.

[Ava]

That used to confuse me, but now I just think of it like this: the century will alway be the number AFTER the specified year. So for example, on a number line 19 comes AFTER 18. Therefore, when I am talking about the year 1864 for example, the specified year that I’m discussing is in the 19th century.

[laurenconrad]

I feel you, said the girl who spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out when to capitalize the E in the word “Earl” and when not to. 😆 Also, would the Marquess of Northumberland necessarily have a house in the county of Northumberland or no? 😂

[catherinejustcatherine]

I appreciate that you make this clear to folks who didn't already know it! A wonderfully accessible video; excellent in every way!🌞

[kathyjohnson]

Teaching music history, I say seventeen hundreds even for my university students because the students have more than enough information to learn, much of it in foreign languages and unusual terms, that asking them to essentially translate era just makes absorbing it all even harder. I expect them to know century ordinals, but I don't have to make it harder

[sofiathewitch]

Yes! It can be confusing, but there is a simple explanation: a century is 100 years (from centum in latin), a century always starts with "01" and end with "00" : so 19th century starts with 1801 and ends with 1900.
Now let's think about the 1st and 2nd century (but you can use this for all centuries of course)

   1st            2nd         3rd
Because with centuries you are actually counting how many times a hundred year passed!

It's like with our age, when you born you live your first year of life until your first birthday, when you start your second year of life and so on.
Let's say I'm 17, I'm living my 18th year, let's say it's 1767, it's the 18th century.

I hope this explanation could help someone, I know it may seem intricated but if you draw a line on a paper and you put on it the numbers, I promise it makes sense 🙈
Also I always found very intuitive the use of numbers like "17th century", in Italy we use roman numbers when we talk about them and believe me, when you are in elementary school it's not simple ahah

[kelliehorn]

Literally THE way I remember this is in We're Back, Rex sings that they're in the "20th century" and the movie came out in the 1990's. There are all the other better ways, but that's the way my brain requires.

[elizabethclaiborne]

Abby Cox, fighting the good fight!
As one of my professors called it…
It’s confusing; I remember being specifically told about this in high school, and 40 years later I have to stop, think, (count on my fingers) to get it right.

[FranciscaPires]

it's the same in Portuguese 😁 we further distinguish those two by using roman numerals to write which century it is and regular numbers for a specific year or decade

[sheenajae]

What gets me is I usually hear the 1700s referred to as the 18th century, while the 1800s seem to be commonly be referred to as simply 1800s (or specific date), so I got two "18s" floating around in my head. Then, when the 17th century comes in, it feels like it's floating around outta nowhere.

I know the difference LOGICALLY, but it trips my brain up and I always have to translate.

[rowan_jalso]

I always remind myself this rule by thinking “there was no 0-th century. So the years 1-99 CE was the FIRST century past year 1. So remember kids, there was no 0-th century.

[hannahmounser]

I always think of it as I’m 43 years old, but I’m in my 44th year of life.